Nonionic surfactants are generally included in laundry detergent compositions for their ability to attack greasy and oily soils. Cationic surfactants are also used in detergent compositions primarily to provide adjunct fabric care benefits and not for the purpose of enhancing cleaning. Certain cationic surfactants provide a germicidal or sanitization benefit to washed surfaces; see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,434, Koop, issued Apr. 17, 1956; U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,520, Cantor et al, issued Nov. 10, 1970; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,026, Lancz, issued June 22, 1976. Other cationic surfactants, such as ditallowalkyldimethylammonium chloride, are included in detergent compositions to provide a fabric softening benefit, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,607,763, Salmem et al, issued Sept. 21, 1971; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,203, Lamberti et al, issued Feb. 22, 1972. Such components are also used to control static, as well as to soften laundered fabrics as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,879, Wixon, issued Apr. 20, 1976; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,157, Inamorato, issued May 25, 1976. All of such patents being incorporated herein by reference.
The compositions of the present invention have outstanding cleaning capabilities. In full scale laundry tests, these compositions have been shown to be three to four times as effective in removing some typical greasy and oily soils than conventional laundry detergents, including commercially-available heavy duty liquid detergents containing a high proportion of nonionic surfactants. These same detergent compositions, with or without phosphate or other builder components, are also effective in removing clay soils at least as well, and in some instances, substantially better than fully-built conventional granular laundry detergent compositions, and, in addition provide a range of fabric care benefits, such as fabric softening, static control and dye transfer inhibition, to the laundered fabrics. Thus, the compositions of the present invention provide the user with a well-rounded cleaning and fabric care package. These results, which are vastly superior to those previously demonstrated, particularly in the removal of greasy and oily soils, are the result of a heretofore unrecognized cleaning potential of certain selected cationic surfactants when used in the presence of certain selected nonionic surfactants in accordance with the cloud point requirement, and preferably the reduced cationic monomer concentration definition specified herein.
It is an object of this invention to provide laundry detergent compositions which yield outstanding greasy and oily soil and body soil removal.
It is another object of this invention to provide laundry detergent compositions which have excellent particulate soil removal performance and fabric conditioning benefits, in addition to outstanding greasy and oily soil and body soil removal performance, in the presence or absence of builder components.
It is a further object of this invention to provide detergent compositions which may be used in a variety of physical forms, such as liquid, paste, granular, solid, powder, or in conjunction with a carrier such as a substrate.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a process for laundering fabrics to remove greasy and oily soil and body soil, as well as particulate soil, using cationic and nonionic surfactant-containing detergent compositions.